U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,548 to Bouwers et al. discloses one type of prior art wood chipper. The chipper includes a rotating cutting drum adapted to cut wood into small chips that are propelled through a discharge chute. Feed rollers are used to feed the wood desired to be chipped from an inlet into a cutting path of the rotatable cutting drum.
In recent years, wood chippers have become larger and more powerful. Consequently, such wood chippers have also become louder and more subject to excessive vibration. Noise pollution, especially in urban areas, is a growing concern. Excessive vibration generates noise and can cause premature fatigue failure in chipping devices. Therefore, what is needed is a wood chipper having improved noise and vibration abatement characteristics.